Felicitaciones a l@s trabajador@s y a Voces Móviles que han logrado tanto a
través de su compromiso!
Congratulations to the workers and Mobile Voices who have accomplished so
much through their commitment!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amanda Garces <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 7:15 PM
Subject: Mobile Voices wins World Summit Award
To: [log in to unmask]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2010
Contact:
Amanda Garces, IDEPSCA
(818) 303-6342 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (818) 303-6342
end_of_the_skype_highlighting or [log in to unmask]
Gretchen Parker, USC Annenberg
(213) 740-6302 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (213) 740-6302
end_of_the_skype_highlighting, (410)
215-1931begin_of_the_skype_highlighting
(410) 215-1931 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or
[log in to unmask]
*Mobile Voices/Voces Móviles microreporting site wins U.N. mobile technology
award*
*
*
Mobile Voices/Voces Móviles, the microblogging project designed in
collaboration with USC Annenberg and the Institute of Popular Education of
Southern California, or IDEPSCA, has won a United Nations-sponsored World
Summit Award for innovative mobile applications. The collaborative project
is one of five winners in the "m-Inclusion & Empowerment" category, targeted
to those apps that "support integration within the global information
society."
Mobile Voices is an open-source platform that lets mobile phone users post
text, photo and video content to a publicly available website. Day laborers
and household workers across Los Angeles, as well as members of the Los
Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), have used the interface to report
news, distribute information and share stories about their work, lives, and
their points of view.
IDEPSCA's Popular Communication team, which is made up of the day laborers
and household workers who developed the Mobile Voices system, prepared the
following statement:
"This is an effort of more than 2 years, where IDEPSCA's day laborers and
household workers, in collaboration with USC, worked collectively in a
participatory method. Today, we fulfill our goal of consolidating Mobile
Voices as a window to the universe where the voices of those who for
centuries have been excluded from the word can be heard. Silence has been
broken and our voice was heard in a far away place in the Middle East. There
is no work done in vain."
"This effort has been transformative and inspiring," said Amanda Garces,
Mobile Voices project manager at IDEPSCA. "Winning this award truly reflects
the essence of the Mobile Voices project. IDEPSCA's popular education
methodology has created the path for the workers to become subjects of their
own reality. The workers truly live IDEPSCA's motto of reading reality to
write their own history. Their commitment is invaluable."
"One of the unique strengths of VozMob is that it was designed from the
start in close collaboration with the immigrant workers it serves," said
communication professor François Bar, one of the USC Annenberg scholars on
the project team. "This United Nations award brings global recognition to
the value of our participatory design approach."
"The award is a great honor for everyone who has worked hard to make VozMob
a success -- IDEPSCA and LACAN workers, community organizers, Annenberg
students and open-source programmers," Bar said.
The awards are given by the United Nations in recognition of online and
mobile content that promotes global digital access and inclusion in the
communication revolution, especially in developing countries and underserved
communities. More than 420 products from nearly 100 countries were
considered for awards.
Other winners in Mobile Voices' award category included a German application
providing resources for handicapped people and an SMS-integrated program
linking remote communities in Guatemala.
The winning project teams will receive their awards in December at the World
Summit Award Mobile Winners' Gala, Conference and Expo in Abu Dhabi. In
addition to an awards ceremony, the three-day conference brings together
global leaders in mobile application development for networking and
knowledge exchange.
*About IDEPSCA*
The roots of the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California
(IDEPSCA) trace back to 1984, when a group of students and parents met in
Central Park in the City of Pasadena to confront racism, educational
inequalities and the lack of affordable housing. Stories of joy, struggle
and hope became mirrors for educational and organizing processes. This
experience, and systematic practice that evolved from it, has given IDEPSCA
the tools and methods to successfully work with low-income workers and
others groups committed to solving problems in their own communities.
*About the USC Annenberg School for Communication*
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the
Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism is a national leader in
education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public
diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200
students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree
programs, as well as continuing development programs for working
professionals, across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school's
comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership,
innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a
networked university located in the media capital of the world.
*About the World Summit Award-Mobile*
Organized by the International Center for New Media in Salzburg, the World
Summit Award-Mobile is a global initiative within the framework of, and in
cooperation with, the United Nations World Summit on the Information
Society, in collaboration with UNESCO, UNIDO and the United National Global
Alliance for ICT and Development. The WSA-mobile is the only ICT event
worldwide that reaches the mobile community in over 160 countries and is
able to promote the best mobile content and innovative applications out of
this huge selection.
###
--
Amanda Lucia Garces
Mobile Voices Project Manager
IDEPSCA
213-252-2952 xt 39
www.idepsca.org
www.vozmob.net
http://vozmob.net/en/story/mobile-voices-wins-world-summit-award
"It is our moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
— Martin Luther King-